MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Plenipotentiary representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in the Contact Group on Ukraine Denis Pushilin has sent Heidi Tagliavini, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine, a letter urging her to conduct a public investigation into recent shelling of the city of Gorlovka.
Gorlovka, located in the Donetsk Region, on May 26 came under heavy shelling on the part of Ukrainian servicemen. Five civilians, including a 11-year-old child, were killed, another nine wounded.
"I sent Tagliavini a letter asking her to conduct a public investigation and establish those guilty of the shelling," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Pushilin as saying.
He said he sent a letter to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the ceasefire regime to prevent such developments in future.
Pushilin said the tragedy in Gorlovka will be discussed at a meeting of the Contact Group on June 2. "This will certainly be raised in the security subgroup," the DPR representative said.
Meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine and of four working subgroups have been scheduled for June 2.
DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko, in turn, said he hopes the participants of the Contact Group assess Gorlovka shelling incidents properly.
Zakharchenko said civilians were killed in the incidents when Gorlovka was shelled. "Fire was delivered on residential areas," he said.
A coup occurred in Ukraine in February 2014. Mass protests soon erupted in Ukraine’s southeast, where local residents did not recognize the coup-imposed authorities, formed militias and started fighting for their rights.
Ukrainian troops have been engaged in fierce fighting with local militias during Kiev’s military operation, underway since mid-April 2014, to regain control over the breakaway territories - the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics constituting parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. The clashes have killed thousands.
On September 19, 2014, the Trilateral Contact Group on settlement in east Ukraine comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE adopted a memorandum in Minsk to outline the parameters for the implementation of commitments on a ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the 12-point Minsk Protocol of September 5, 2014.
The Contact Group’s meetings in December 2014 and January 2015 were nearly fruitless. The Group held regular talks in Minsk on February 10-12, 2015, signing a 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements.
The Package of Measures (Minsk-2) included cessation of fire from February 15, 2015, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement in Ukraine, in particular establishment of working subgroups.
The subgroups focus on four areas: economic issues and restoration of facilities; refugees, internally displaced persons and humanitarian assistance; political issues; security issues.
The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated.